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As vote on Intel tax breaks nears, everyone has an opinion (your comments)

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Intel is in line to receive property tax breaks on up to $100 billion of investment during the next 30 years under proposed new Strategic Investment Program deal due to be voted upon Tuesday, Aug. 26, by the Washington County Commission and Hillsboro City Council.
(Mark Graves/Hillsboro Argus)

In the view of three newspaper editorial boards, the proposed new tax breaks package for Intel is justified by the company's singular role in generating economic development across the metro area.

From the perspective of some local citizens, the deal is a too-generous giveaway that shortchanges schools and property owners.

And among readers commenting on OregonLive.com, the tax breaks either make great sense or no sense at all.

With the Washington County Commission and the Hillsboro City Council poised to give final approval at a joint meeting Tuesday, Aug. 26, here's what everyone is saying about the new Strategic Investment Program (SIP) deal:

"Beyond its $2.8 billion payroll and 17,500 workers, Intel's economic clout has been felt in the number of suppliers, retailers and contract workers who sell goods and services to the company and its employees."

"With strong ties and financial support for Oregon's seven public universities, Intel provides the means for local college grads to get excellent jobs in high-tech industry — something that is proving to be the exception and not the rule for most college grads."

"...state and local officials have taken significant steps toward securing the long-term presence of Intel and fellow Washington County economic heavyweight Nike by striking deals that ensure the companies can continue to operate under existing ground rules well into the future."

Joe Rayhawk, writing in the Hillsboro Argus, maintains that special deals given to Intel and Nike do little to help resolve the county's major issues – poorly funded roads and schools and a looming water shortage.

"If we are ever going to fix the problem, the tax burden will fall on citizens and on current companies and any others dumb enough to move here knowing Intel and Nike have deals that preclude us from increasing their taxes."

Jody Wiser and Elsa Porter, members of the citizen watchdog group Tax Fairness Oregon, contend in a guest opinion that Intel's tax break is bad for Oregon.

"Intel has managed once again to frighten our political leaders into believing that Oregon must pacify its illustrious giant by relieving it of the civic responsibilities that the rest of us bear....Our tax code is full of loopholes and tax breaks benefiting big corporations. When they don't pay their fair share of taxes, someone else pays the price."

Hillsboro resident Anne Riley suggests local and state officials revise the SIP deal to protect the roughly 40 percent of property taxes collected for local schools.

"Washington County, city of Hillsboro, state of Oregon, go ahead and give Intel its $100 billion tax break. But let's exempt the education portion of the property taxes from the deal."

"Intel has managed once again to frighten our political leaders"--this sums up the problem that taxpayers face today. Our public officials are willing to meet behind closed doors with corporate lawyers and lobbyists and give away the tax revenue we desperately need. Then they rush to sign the documents before common sense can prevail. In this case there may still be time for citizens to act to bring their officials to their senses. If not, voters need to remember at election time who it was that pulled off the big giveaway. We need to ask them why they did it, and take note of what personal benefits they gained.

The state allowing local governments to grant millions of dollars in ad hoc tax breaks to one or two corporations should be example "A" for overall tax reform.

If the Governors office and Oregon Business would put the various special tax break programs we now have on the table we may even get it done.

But, as long as the major players get to opt out of our out of date tax system by doing even better under their special programs, what incentive do they have to be a part of fixing this inequitable system? Any " reform" could only be bad for them individually.

Governor, make enterprise zones, SIPs, grants and loans part of the tax discussion and I think you'd get more people to the tax reform table.

Intel and its special and expensive facilities get taxed at rates other businesses do not experience. That is the root of the problem, there's no reason to point fingers at Intel. Intel gets special tax rates and deals other businesses don't because it does what so many businesses do not: export goods and services, pay good wages, and invest in billions of dollars in facilities that employs thousands of other people from restaurants to construction workers. There's a big misnomer that small businesses are the backbone of the economy but that's not true so many are largely dependent on other bigger businesses like Intel.

I really need the city and county to explain why this SIP is a good idea when they are asking residents to approve a vehicle tax. And, I'd also like to know why they didn't negotiate with Intel about road maintenance when it is apparently such a crisis.

Intel's recent expansion is killing traffic in town. Without the SIP, perhaps there would be less expansion, but is that necessarily bad? Intel tends to hire only recent college grads, and not from Oregon schools, either. Hillsboro seems stuck in an endless growth cycle, and that doesn't seem sustainable.

The problem with the recent "negotiations" is that there is no quid pro quo. Basically Intel gets a huge tax break, which they do not need, and Washington County gets NOTHING. No employment guarantees, no payroll targets, no nothing. ZIP, ZILCH, NADA.

Why did Washington County roll over like this? Because they went into a battle of the wits - unarmed. Intel has a legal department larger than the State of Oregon. They have world-class negotiating teams that do this all the time. WASCO commissioners weren't qualified to serve the refreshments.

This failure by WASCO points to a larger problem with SIP - regional governments are ill-equipped to negotiate fair & reasonable deals. My point is that the burden of running SIP is too great. So abolish SIP, as it is too easy to game.

Intel is in decline (remember Tektronix?). There is no upside here. Hanging our future hopes on Intel is historically foolish.

The problem with Oregon property tax code is that it taxes capital as if it were real estate. So a company like Intel, that is hugely capital intensive (meaning it invests billions in plant and equipment in its facilities) would get taxed on the value of this equipment if it were not for the SIP.

There's just no way Intel would have ever grown here if it had to pay Oregon's regular property tax assessment, capped at 3% of assessed value, on its billions of plant and equipment.

That said, the SIP is definitely a carve-out that benefits very few corporations, since so few have that level of capital investment in their sites. Instead of making exceptions to tax code in order to ameliorate the perverse effects of a bad tax system, we should change the tax system for everyone.